Participating Frequently

Question

Adobe Reader DC not opening hyperlinks

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
August 16, 2017
10 replies
84642 views

Hello,

We generate PDF files to provide customers with their case results.

These documents contain hyperlinks. However, they do not work with the latest version of Adobe Reader DC for desktop or mobile. I already checked all settings within Adobe Reader DC and still does not work.

It works fine with Adobe Reader XI on desktop.

Do we have to modify the way we generate PDF files so Adobe Reader DC can handle hyperlinks properly on desktop and mobile? Or is it a bug on your end with this version that applies to all PDF documents generated by a non Adobe software product?

I can provide a sample PDF document as well.

Please let me know.

This topic has been closed for replies.

pauls43333220

New Participant

Same here! When converting Word 2016 DOCX files to PDF (I only run Reader DC 2018.011.20038) I experience the following outcomes (mailto and "concealed http" links - e.g. showing only "SBB" with the following link behind it "http://www.sbb.ch"):

Export - create PDF/XPS document (same as "save as PDF" in my opinion) --> all hyperlinks work ("concealed" http and mailto), but document is not searchable, fonts appear not to be embedded, quality looks somewhat shittier than with print option
Print - Microsoft print to PDF --> only mailto-Links work, http not, document searchable, all fonts embedded, looks a tad better than above method

When using "non concealed" links in Word, e.g. directly showing, e.g. "http://www.sbb.ch" in the Text, links also work with the print method above. This is very unsatisfying, and new! My business partner (same setup) does experience the exactly same issues. We need to produce PDFs that look fine, have fonts embedded, are searchable and have working hyperlink functionality. Displaying the full link in Word is only a workaround when the link is short.

How to solve this? Thanks!

T

Test Screen Name

Brainiac

When you print to PDF it is impossible for hidden things like hyperlinks (that don't match text) to be preserved. Save as PDF might, but in no case are you using Adobe technology...

G

geomacl

New Participant

I have the same problem when trying to open web urls highlighted in blue in a pdf document - the cursor does not seem to recognise the links and I cannot open them. I am using the latest update 2018.011.20038 - this is extremely inconvenient

try67

Community Expert

Go to Edit (or the Acrobat menu if you're on a Mac) - Preferences - General and tick the "Create links from URLs" box.

G

geomacl

New Participant

Already tried that without success! Very frustrating!

T

terrid53270601

Participating Frequently

Oh my gosh. How long does it take for Adobe to fix a problem. This issue with links not working when converting to a pdf has been going on for almost a year!!

B

billz73277667

New Participant

I received many pdf files, each containing many web urls, and I can't open any of them, and I am not sure whether it will let me to copy the urls so I can open the web page in a browser window. I have latest update Acrobat Reader DC Version 2018.011.20038 installed. Is there a temporary workaround before you make permanent fix? It is very urgent!!!

try67

Community Expert

What happens when you click on these links?

nguyễnt85853458

New Participant

Vay Tao cho toi mot ban mau

nguyễnt85853458

New Participant

Bay ban cho toi mot lien ket

MothaFlip

New Participant

Hi,

We're also having this problem where we can't keep internal hyperlinks from our Excel Worksheets.
Hyperlinks in the file that point to websites seem to work fine, however, hyperlinks to specific cells or titles, are not kept.

Is there anyway where we could revert to the version before this update?
This is really counter-productive.

A

apangasa11851843

Adobe Employee

Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. We checked this at our end and found that links to specified cells are working for us.

Can you please list down the steps that you use for converting Excel to PDF?

Also, it is worth mentioning here that the links to cells work in PDF only when you use Adobe Acrobat create PDF workflows for creating PDF. If you are using any other service for PDF creation, there are chances that links might not work in resulting PDF.

Thanks,

Ankit

MothaFlip

New Participant

We're going to "Insert" > "Hyperlink" > "Insert Hyperlink" and pointing it to a specific cell in the worksheet.
After that, going to the "ACROBAT" tab and "Create PDF" (with "Add Links" and such selected).

The resulting file DOES NOT keep the internal hyperlinks, it only keeps hyperlinks to URLs.

We've also tried doing it through the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC directly, the results are the same.

We previously did it in older versions of the file and it worked with no problems, but now, even going to previous versions and trying to convert them to PDF is not keeping the hyperlinks on those files.

D

damianog

New Participant

Please release the update, I started to suggest to our Customer to use PDFXchange Viewer.

A

aprilh20022472

New Participant

I have found it to work if you save to a PDF, but not print to a PDF. Another note - the links will actually open if I click 5 times without moving the cursor as it steps through highlighting parts of the document. Does it work this way for others having this issue?

stevieland

Participating Frequently

I too figured that out in regards to printing as PDF vs saving--and am doing it that way going forward. Unfortunately, that doesn't help retroactively all the 1000s of PDFs I've sent to customers in the past who purchased them already and who suddenly can't access links that are integral to the product itself--like Dave Ing above mentioned his own issues with this.

Regarding clicking 5x, those links do finally open when you do that! Good detective work. But again, customers are never going to figure that out, nor should they have to do all that troubleshooting when purchasing something that was advertised as having usable, clickable links. All they know is that something that was supposed to happen doesn't happen, and it makes me look bad, not Adobe.

A

apangasa11851843

Adobe Employee

Hi all,

Acrobat and Reader DC update containing fix for this issue is now available. All existing installations of Acrobat and Reader will automatically be updated with this patch. If you want, you may manually trigger this update by opening the application and visiting Help > Check for Updates.

More details: Acrobat Help | Release notes | Acrobat DC and 2017, Acrobat Reader DC and 2017 | Update

Please let me know in case of any questions.

Thanks,

Ankit